Ripple Labs, the renowned blockchain firm, has once again unlocked a substantial 1 billion XRP from its escrow account. This information came to light through Whale Alert, a top-tier crypto whale monitoring service.
The unlocking process was executed in three distinct transactions on October 1, right at the stroke of midnight UTC. The initial transaction consisted of a whopping 500 million XRP, having a market value of approximately $299.9 million. This was closely followed by a subsequent release of 400 million XRP, valued at around $239.92 million. The final installment in this series was a release of 100 million XRP, pegged at nearly $59.98 million. Moreover, just a little before these significant releases, there was a notable movement of 50 million XRP. These coins shifted from one of Ripple’s primary accounts to an unidentified recipient.
Whale Alert’s records indicate that this latter transaction transpired just a few minutes before midnight at 23:26 UTC. As a consequence of these transactions, the Ripple-associated address currently boasts a balance of 166.34 million XRP. However, the mystery recipient’s address saw its balance jump to a commendable 54.72 million XRP.
Now, one might wonder about the rationale behind these releases. Significantly, this practice isn’t a one-off event. Ripple has made it a routine to unlock these tokens on the first day of every month. This strategy was inaugurated back in December 2017, and its principal aim was to infuse a degree of stability into the XRP market ecosystem.
Back in the day, Ripple secured a staggering 55 billion XRP in a uniquely designed escrow mechanism within the XRP Ledger. This system was configured to consistently release a minimum of 1 billion XRP every month over a span of 55 months. Additionally, in a bid to shield the XRP price from erratic market movements, Ripple typically re-locks a significant portion of the released tokens. In numerous instances, up to 800 million XRP out of the 1 billion released has been sent back to escrow.
In related developments, Ripple’s Q3 2023 market report is now out in the public domain. The report highlights a peak in XRP’s market volatility on July 13. This tumult was triggered when a federal court proclaimed that XRP would not be classified as a security. At the end of the quarter, XRP’s volatility rate stood at 40%, registering a notable 90-day low.
Furthermore, the report sheds light on Binance’s predominant role in the XRP market for Q3 2023. The exchange was responsible for an impressive 60% of the total XRP trade volumes on all exchange platforms during the last quarter.
